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Jumbo, the flying elephants: Primoz Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard
Photo: MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP
On his 29th birthday, the overall leader of the Tour of Spain, Sepp Kuss, lost valuable seconds. His teammates from the dominant Jumbo Visma racing team, Primoz Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard, left the American standing on the final climb of the queen stage of the Vuelta, sprinted for stage success and took 19 seconds off him.
In the end, Roglič won the 17th stage up to Alto de l'Angliru ahead of Vingegaard, who crossed the finish line at the same time. Kiss finished third. The superiority of Jumbo Visma had once again been demonstrated.
Kuss remains in the red jersey of the leader, but his lead over Vingegaard, the winner of the Tour de France, is only eight seconds. Roglič in third place is one minute and seven seconds behind.
No gift for kiss
Many observers had expected Roglič and Vingegaard to give their teammate Kuss a birthday present, leaving him to win the stage. But that couldn't be done with the two champions.
As a noble helper in the mountains at the Giro and the Tour de France, the American had played a major role in the overall victories of his team captains Roglic (Giro) and Vingegaard (Tour).
As expected, the team was also superior in today's mountain stage. On the final climb with a gradient of up to 24 percent, the Jumbo-Express first caught up with the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, who had been leading for a long time, then shook off the last competitors until only three of you were left.
On Thursday, the next challenge awaits the field, again in Asturias over three mountains of the 1st category.
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